Editing Suebi (section)

==Etymology==
Etymologists trace the name from [[Proto-Germanic language|Proto-Germanic]] *''swēbaz'' based on the Proto-Germanic [[Root (linguistics)|root]] *''swē-'' found in the third-person [[reflexive pronoun]], giving the meaning "one's own" people,<ref name="urnordisk">{{cite web|last=Peterson|first=Lena|title=Swābaharjaz|work=Lexikon över urnordiska personnamn|publisher=Institutet för språk och folkminnen, Sweden|url=http://www.sofi.se/images/NA/pdf/urnord.pdf|page=16|access-date=2007-10-11|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110518012642/http://www.sofi.se/images/NA/pdf/urnord.pdf|archive-date=2011-05-18}} (Text in [[Swedish language|Swedish]]); for an alternative meaning, as "free, independent" see {{Cite book|last=Room|first=Adrian|contribution=Swabia, Sweden | title=Placenames of the World: Origins and Meanings of the Names for 6,600 Countries, Cities, Territories, Natural Features and Historic Sites: Second Edition|publisher=McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers|year=2006|location=Jefferson, North Carolina, and London|pages=363, 364|isbn=0786422483}}; compare [[Suiones]]</ref> in turn from an earlier [[Proto-Indo-European language|Indo-European]] root ''*swe-'' (Polish ''swe, swój, swoi,'' Latin ''sui,'' Italian ''suo, '' Sanskrit ''swa'', each meaning "one's own").<ref>{{cite web|last=Pokorny|first=Julius|author-link=Julius Pokorny|title=Root/Lemma se-|work=Indogermanisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch|publisher=Indo-European Etymological Dictionary (IEED), Department of Comparative Indo-European Linguistics, Leiden University|pages=882–884|url=http://www.indoeuropean.nl/cgi-bin/startq.cgi?flags=endnnnl&root=leiden&basename=%5Cdata%5Cie%5Cpokorny|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110809064309/http://www.indoeuropean.nl/cgi-bin/startq.cgi?flags=endnnnl&root=leiden&basename=%5Cdata%5Cie%5Cpokorny|archive-date=2011-08-09}} ([[German language]] text); locate by searching the page number.{{cite web|first=Gerhard|last=Köbler|title=*se-|work=Indogermanisches Wörterbuch: 3. Auflage|year=2000|page=188|url=http://www.koeblergerhard.de/germanistischewoerterbuecher/indogermanischeswoerterbuch/idgS.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071025144447/http://www.koeblergerhard.de/germanistischewoerterbuecher/indogermanischeswoerterbuch/idgS.pdf|archive-date=2007-10-25}} (German language text); the etymology in English is in {{cite web|last=Watkins|first=Calvert|author-link=Calvert Watkins|title=s(w)e-|work=Appendix I: Indo-European Roots|publisher=The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition|year=2000|url=http://www.bartleby.com/61/roots/IE509.html}} Some related English words are ''sibling, sister, swain, self''.
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The etymological sources list the following ethnic names as being from the same root: [[Swedes (Germanic tribe)|Suiones]] (whence also the name of the [[Swedes]]), [[Samnites]], [[Sabellians]], [[Sabines]], and, according to one of the hypotheses, [[Slavic people|Slavs]], indicating the possibility of a prior more extended and common Indo-European ethnic name, "our own people". Notably, the [[Semnones]], known to classical authors as one of the largest Suebian groups, also seem to have a name with this same meaning, but recorded with a different pronunciation by the Romans.

Alternatively, it may be borrowed from a [[Celtic languages|Celtic]] word for "vagabond".<ref>
{{cite book|last=Schrijver|first=Peter|title=Yr Hen Iaith: Studies in Early Welsh|year=2003|publisher=Celtic Studies Publications|location=Aberystwyth|isbn=978-1-891271-10-6|author-link=Peter Schrijver|editor-last=Russell|editor-first=Paul|chapter=The etymology of Welsh chwith and the semantics and morphology of PIE *k(w)sweibh-}}
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[[File:Mušov Cauldron.jpg|thumb|Mušov Cauldron, a Roman bronze cauldron found in 1988 in a Germanic chieftain's grave in [[Mušov]], Czech Republic, dating to the 2nd century A.D. The cauldron is decorated by four cast heads of Germanic men wearing a [[Suebian knot]] hairstyle]]